Greetings again from the darkness. Contentedly, most us live our lives in a manner that would never be worthy of tabloid headlines. Not so for Gracie in this psychologically complex new film from expert director Todd Haynes (FAR FROM HEAVEN, 2002) and writers Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik. Early on, Haynes shows us those tabloids featuring Gracie's scandal following her seduction of 7th grader Joe in the stock room of the local pet store. She was 36 years old, and he was 13. Soon after, Gracie went to prison, where she bore their first child.

The story picks up 24 years later as Gracie and Joe are married, and their second and third children, twins Mary (Elizabeth Yu) and Charlie (Gabriel Chung), are graduating high school and preparing to ship off to college. In other words, they are all living a fairly normal life. However, as a harsh reminder that their lives are not actually normal, Elizabeth (Oscar winner Natalie Portman) arrives at their Savannah home to research her role as Gracie in an upcoming indie film about the scandal.

Oscar winner Julianne Moore plays Gracie, in her fourth collaboration with director Haynes. Charles Melton (THE SUN IS ALSO A STAR, 2019) plays Joe, who is now the same age as Elizabeth, as well as the kids from Gracie's first marriage. Elizabeth is polite and apologetic as she initially treads carefully in asking probing questions of the family and their friends. Her approach generates some awkward moments, and although Gracie seems to hold firmly to her did-nothing-wrong stance, it's Joe who begins to question things ... mimicking the slow development of the Monarch butterflies he breeds.

Perhaps the film's best sequence occurs when actress Elizabeth shows up for a Q&A with Mary and Charlie's class. When the question gets a bit risqué, Elizabeth's answer borders on inappropriate, and is an honest depiction of the fine line between acting and reality. Back at the house, Elizabeth's questions raise previously unspoken doubts, as well as the ongoing impact of the scandal ... not the least of which are periodic postal deliveries of excrement denoting some of the public's view of a female predator.

The similarities to the true-life story of Mary Kay Letourneau are inescapable, though a twist here is that Gracie and Joe's recollection of how things started are not necessarily in sync. Savannah is always a character unto itself, and the accompanying music is eerily spot on ... including the repurposing of Michel Legrand's score from THE GO-BETWEEN (1971). The three lead actors (Ms. Portman, Ms. Moore, Mr. Melton) are terrific, and director Haynes has delivered yet another complex movie that gives the appearance of simplicity due to how beautifully it's done.

Opens in select theaters on November 17, 2023 and streams on Netflix beginning December 1, 2023.

In moviemaking, there's subtlety, and then there's subtlety carried too far. In the case of director Todd Haynes's latest, the filmmaker unfortunately indulges himself far too much in the latter. This story of an actress (Natalie Portman) who visits a middle-aged sex offender (Julianne Moore) to prepare for a role she's about to play in a movie about her subject's life never seems to find a footing to stick with and explore. The narrative examines many different aspects of the back story behind the lives of the characters to be portrayed in this pending production without ever really resolving any of them by the time the credits roll. This includes not only the protagonist's reasons for pursuing her once-underage husband (Charles Melton) - actions that got her jailed and made her fodder for countless tawdry tabloid cover stories - but also the nature of the actress's real motivations in conducting such an excessively intense in-depth study of her character. In the process, virtually everyone comes across as somewhat unsavory, and, considering that the truth is never clearly revealed about any of them, it begs the question, why should we care about any of this? The film depicts all of this so subtly that it goes beyond nuance, veering into the realm of enigmatic, thereby further reinforcing the notion of why any of us should care. Ironically, these underplayed elements are in stark contrast to some rather obvious (and terribly trite) symbolism, particularly in images related to themes of transition and transformation. The picture's inconsistent changes in tone don't help, either, vacillating between allegedly serious drama and a seemingly underdeveloped desire to break out as an exercise in full-fledged camp (which, by the way, probably would have made this a much better offering). The script's meandering flow and glacial pacing also don't help, leaving viewers scratching their heads more often than not as to where this story is headed. In the end, all of the foregoing is ultimately quite unfortunate, because there's definite potential in this project, but it's never adequately defined and fleshed out. Leads Moore and (especially) Portman turn in admirable efforts to make this material fly, but they simply don't have enough to work with to make that happen. While there appear to be allusions to themes like the difficulty involved in dealing with long-buried feelings and the fact that we may never be able to adequately grasp the truth behind them (either as outsiders looking in or as active participants in the midst of such dealings), the cryptic handling of those ideas undermines whatever meaningful messages or cinematic value they might have, making all of this seem like just such a big waste of time. Director Haynes has an impressive filmography behind him with such releases as "Poison" (1991), "Far From Heaven" (2002) and "Dark Waters" (2019), but, regrettably, "May December" certainly can't be counted as part of that list.

A profound character piece about some very not too deep characters - or at least one who has deluded/distorted who she is into this sweet mother and housewife who did a... disgusting thing, and a husband who isnstarting to open up, like a butterfly.... or that's how hed like to think of himself, or the climax of this could be the start.

If Todd Haynes had a Douglas Sirk film previously with Far From Heaven in a sort of classical mold - how people were somewhat more shaped by their circumstances at that period of time zz this is another but spiked to the brim with the acid satire of 21st century tabloid "stories" (don't neglect when the actress Elizabeth slips and talks about these real people's lives as "stories" or scenarios of a kind), and how what can be turned into pulpy melodrama through the act of dramatization is actually not all that deep. And yet at the same time there is a tragedy of loss (childhood for example) amid the notions of what it means to "recontextualize" through performance.

This is a credit to the brilliant screenplay by Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik, but Haynes has such an awesome command of his medium for the most part and giving the space the actors, Moore and Portman (that one monologue to the camera, as commanding a moment as she will ever deliver) and Melton who comes close to running away with this as the only character who is realizing what a... *problem* this all is.

May December (what a title by the way) is also the kind of experience you need to sit with for a few minutes after it ends, not necessarily for its insights, though it does give us apt and biting and all too true insight about how the "complex/morally gray" people who actors and the like try to study are sometimes... not (re: Jeffrey Dahmer, and other lessor True Crime scansls), but because of how the ending is an anti-climax that sort of pulls the rug out from expectations of this building to a conventional thriller point (ie who will get killed if at all).

It instead recontextualizes what this is about: how people tell themselves what they want and/or need to get through their lives and work - that goes for Gracie and how she's chosen to distort herself (the "Naive" comment about herself isn't wrong, but the Lizard brain part of her knows how to move and manipulate in her way, hence what she says in that explosive argument scene in the bedroon), but also Elizabeth and her career and Joe and how he sees his life with this woman, now at the age she was when the statutory rape occurred. And the community around them that doesn't bat an eye anymore about what this family is? Shrug. People forget these things, it seems.

No matter how happy you've think you are or how many cakes you can make (or, nah, she's not really making that many), or what the kids think of all this (mostly just... whatever), love and control of reality are quite malleable. In other words, May December is a gripping satire Melodrama pop culture commentary with a couple of narrative loose ends I can acknowledge but mostly overlook (the asthma I thought would play a little more of a plant/payoff role, and some odd editing in the graduation set piece) because of the strengths; the performances are among not only the finest of the year but ones all the leading actors should be proud to say are highpoints of their careers.

I mean, the Gracie voice? No notes. Last but certainly not least - it's the kind of film that feels of a piece with the You're Wrong About podcast, looking at a real life case and going "wait... let's debunk this and show how things can just be... dumb and silly and shallow." Great, incivise, uncomfortable times.